Why Apple, Meta and Google Are Buying Remote-Controlled Robot Arms

During Nvidia’s conference for developers last week, CEO Jensen Huang showed off software that creates computer simulations of robots. Those simulations aim to teach robots how to perform tasks, from washing dishes to picking up household objects.

But some robot makers I spoke to say it’s better to train robots to do such tasks by having a person control them remotely, also known as teleoperation, and then directing an AI model to imitate those actions. It’s similar to how language models can copy the way humans write poetry or code, but for physical actions.

In a sign of growing interest in teleoperation, Scale AI is considering jumping into that market, according to people who have spoken to the company’s staff. 

Scale has an army of human contractors who create data to train AI and evaluate the performance of AI models in difficult tasks. The company has discussed using that workforce to handle teleoperation for training robots, these people said.